Between Worlds by Jacqueline E. Smith

Rating Overview

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Cover: ★★★★★

Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

The story is a Supernatural Mystery/Horror novel set revolving around Michael, a spiritual medium (not a psychic) who is able to see and hear ghosts. He has made friends with Luke, the host of a Supernatural Ghost Hunting TV series called Cemetery Tours. The sequel of this book takes Michael, Luke, Kate (Michael’s girlfriend) and crew across from their Texas home to the eastern US to search for the possible proof of a haunted house. With Michael’s affinity for ghosts, he is bound to come across something? What they all find is more than they bargained for as they’ll have to look for the clues to calm an angry spirit refusing to cross between this world and the next.

The Critical Points:

Writing:

There’s really nothing bad I could say here. Jacqueline writes beautifully, there aren’t any errors or confusion in the book. There was a few wonky areas of formatting, but I always like to blame Kindle for that. I found myself highlighting quotes and interesting passages in my literary quest from chapter to chapter.

Story:

Haunted house stories can either be hit or miss. Too much of the same ol’ same ol’ and it feels like a waste of time and money and too many new elements and everything can get wrapped up in the last five pages leaving the reader to wonder what happened.

This story, carefully and poetically guides the reader through scene after scene. There’s never really too much or too little. The areas I found wanting more from leave a window open for other stories to fill in, so I can’t be critical about it. Between Worlds combines humor, mystery, a little horror and a dash of romance. Hitting multiple genres in one book is a goal for every writer.

Characters:

The characters are even more memorable in this book than its predecessor. I feel the apprehension in Michael, the playful spirit of Kate and the humorous adventurer in Luke. Brink adds some comic relief when needed and her other characters filter in lovely. I would say that the crew in Cemetery Tours became a little flat between JT and Peter, I found myself not associating with them just because they didn’t have a large role, which isn’t that big of a thing. I do wish a little more emphasis on Emily since her and Michael revealed to have so much in common. Hopefully she makes a cameo in the next book?

Appearance:

I love the subtly and colors used in the cover of Jacqueline’s book. I always judge a book initially by its cover (we all do) and I would display it proudly. It gives me a sense of creepy, nostalgic and romantically haunting all in one.

Final Thoughts

Haunted house and/or ghost books are saturated in October. Finding Jackie on her WordPress site was a fortuitous one. Seeing her grow as an author a few steps ahead of me gives me hope that I will continue to get better just like she has. It’s been a blast following her and getting to know her outside of fictitious tales on her site. I look forward to more works with her and hope I can call her a friend.

Links

Find Jacqueline’s books through her links below and check out her other links to various outlets below!

Like this:

Related

Published by Jonas Lee

Author of the Legend of Carter Gabel series. Just a guy from South Dakota using his thoughts to entertain people as best as he can. Loves M&Ms, hiking, photography and movies.
View all posts by Jonas Lee